Bhubaneswar, Jun 18 (PTI) Star long jumper Murali Sreeshankar produced a huge 8.41m effort in his very first attempt in the qualifying round at the National Inter-State Athletics Championships to qualify for the World Championships, here on Sunday. The 24-year-old Sreeshankar's jump was just 1cm shy of Jeswin Aldrin's national record of 8.42m set earlier this year. Murali Sreeshankar Finishes Third in Long Jump at Paris Diamond League 2023.

However, the effort was Sreeshankar's personal best. "The wind reading was fine, it was 1.5m/s. Just short of the national record but I am happy to have made this jump," Sreeshankar, who was representing Kerala, said after the event.

Aldrin was second with a best jump of 7.83m while Muhammed Anees Yahiya was third with 7.71m, as 12 long jumpers made it to the final to be held on Monday. The Asian Games qualifying mark for the men's long jump is 7.95m.

On June 9, Sreeshankar became only the third Indian — after Olympic champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra and former discus thrower Vikas Gowda — to win a Diamond League medal with a bronze in the Paris leg with an effort of 8.09m. The men's long jump qualifying distance for the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary in August is 8.25m.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)